THERE are stages in the business of serious life in which to amuse is cruel, but to deceive is to destroy; and it is of little consequence, in the conclusion, whether men deceive themselves, or submit, by a kind of mutual consent, to the impositions of each other.
From "The American Crisis," Paine reflects on the dangers of amusement and deception in critical times, emphasizing the destructive nature of self-deception or mutual imposition.
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